Everyday Love
by YanksLuver
Summary: Patrick distracts a recovering Robin.


**Title**: Everyday Love  
**Author**: Steph  
**Rating**: PG

**Pairing**: Robin/Patrick, Noah/Patrick  
**Category**: Romance/Drama  
**Disclaimer**: I do this out of a love for this couple. No infringement is intended.  
**Spoilers**: Nope  
**Summary**: Patrick distracts a recovering Robin.

**Note**: This just sort of popped into my head after watching Friday's episode and how she's going stir crazy. Hope you enjoy it and please let me know what you thought. Thanks! -Steph

**--- Everyday Love: Part 1/1 ---**

Patrick walked into Mac's house and smiled at Robin.

Before he could open his mouth to greet her, she shouted at him, "Oh, thank God you're here!"

His smile widened, as he came to sit on the edge of the couch beside her. "Well, that was quite a welcome." He leaned forward and placed a kiss on her lips. "I'm glad to see you, too."

"No, you don't understand. I am going stir crazy. I am literally going insane. I can't take much more of this, Patrick. I feel like my head is going to explode."

"Do you think maybe you're being a little overly dramatic?" he asked, holding his thumb and forefinger up about an inch apart.

She shook her head firmly. "No, I don't. There's nothing left to do. I've watched every daytime television show I can stomach. I've read five books. I've read countless magazines cover to cover."

He nodded and deadpanned, "You're right. There is literally nothing left to do."

A slight smile pulled at her lips. "I'm serious. I'm bored to death. I survived a gunshot wound and two surgeries and I'm going to die from boredom."

He laughed lightly. "I'm pretty sure there are no documented cases of death from boredom."

"Well, I'll be the first then. I'll make history. You can write a journal article on it and become world famous." She paused and then tilted her head, smiling sweetly. "Maybe you could bring me some work from the hospital?"

He shook his head back and forth. "No way. You need to relax. You don't need to be stressing over some drug trial you have going on."

Robin crossed her arms over her chest and adopted a pout. "You're mean."

Patrick chuckled. "You've called me far worse."

Robin shrugged her shoulders. "Fine, if you won't bring me any work then distract me."

Patrick raised his eyebrows. "Is that a challenge?"

"It most certainly is."

"You know I'm a master of distraction, right?"

Robin nodded with a smile. "Oh, I know. I've lost count how much time I've spent focusing on you instead of work and that's without you even in the room."

Patrick laughed and then scooted closer to Robin. He leaned forward and placed a kiss on her mouth. He then began to trail his lips down her neck. Robin closed her eyes and tilted her head back, as she brought her hand up to grasp his hair.

"My Uncle Mac could come home at anytime, Patrick," she said in a soft moan.

"He's at work. He won't be home for hours," he muttered against her skin.

"Well, Maxie or Georgie could come home then."

"Maxie's at work and Georgie's at class. They won't be home anytime soon either."

Robin's eyes widened and she giggled. "What did you do? Memorize their schedules?"

Patrick pulled back and looked at her, his lips red and swollen. "I may have."

Patrick bent his head again, but Robin placed her hand on his chest. "We can't. Plus, I can't do much of anything and what you're doing right now is driving me even crazier than I was before." She smiled and shook her head. "Sorry, if you're going to distract me, then you're going to have to find another way."

Patrick sat up straight and blew out a breath. "That's like taking Superman's powers away and still asking him to save people."

"Well, you are my hero. I'm sure you'll figure something out."

"Pressure, pressure," he replied with a grin and a shake of his head.

---

"Finally!" Robin said, as Patrick returned from a secretive little trip. "You've been gone almost an hour."

"Miss me?" he asked, as he sat down beside her again and placed the bag he was carrying at his feet.

"Desperately," she replied, mirroring their exchange during her welcome home dinner after her return from the Markaam islands.

"Sorry it took so long. What I was looking for sort of got misplaced during the move."

Robin looked down at the bag. "What is it?"

He held up a finger. "First of all, you have to promise not to share any of what is going take place here with anyone else. I've never shared any of this with anyone."

"I promise."

Patrick took a deep breath and swallowed hard. Then he pulled a large photo album out of the bag.

Robin smiled. "It's your family's photo album?"

Patrick nodded, his expression growing abruptly serious. "These are the only pictures that remain of my mother, of the family we once had. My father burned the rest during a drunken fit the first Christmas after my mother died. I got there just in time to save this."

Robin covered his hand with hers. "That's terrible, Patrick. I'm so sorry."

Robin watched as tears began to fill his eyes. "My racecar set and this photo album are all I have left of my past, any links to my mother. They're the only two things that have come with me wherever I've gone. College, Manhattan, Port Charles."

"And you've never shared this photo album with anyone else?" she asked.

Patrick met her eyes and shook his head. "There wasn't anyone worth sharing it with until now."

Robin smiled and squeezed his hand. "Well, I'm honored."

His serious expression slowly gave way to one of playfulness. "A few more rules. No teasing about any naked pictures you may see of me. No making fun of any ridiculous outfits or hairstyles. They were signs of the times."

"You're taking all of the fun out of this," Robin said with a laugh.

Patrick maneuvered himself so that his back was against the arm of the couch. He then wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled the album onto his lap.

He took a deep breath, as if mentally preparing himself for a journey back in time, for revisiting a past that was usually too painful.

Slowly, he opened the cover of the album. The first picture was of Noah and Mattie on their wedding day. Mattie had long hair the color of Patrick's and a dimpled smile. Her eyes were warm and dark and full of life, very much like her son's. Noah and Mattie were gazing at each other lovingly as they stood under an arch of wildflowers. Bright smiles overtook their faces and it was evident how in love they were.

"You were right," Robin said, as she stared at the photo, mesmerized.

Patrick smiled crookedly. "You know how much I love hearing that, but what was I right about exactly?"

Robin trailed her finger across the picture. "Your parents' love. You could tell just by looking at them. They're not even touching and it's just a moment frozen in time, but it's undeniable, unmistakable."

"I feel like that when I'm with you, you know," he said softly.

Robin raised her head to meet his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I mean you look at me and no words need to pass between us. I can see how much you love me."

Robin raised her hand up to touch his cheek and then guided his mouth down to hers for a soft kiss. When they pulled back, Patrick turned the page.

There were more pictures of Mattie and Noah. Every one was a candid shot. One with them dancing around the kitchen during some family party. Another of them hiking hand-in-hand along some trail. There was one with them planting flowers in the front yard and another of them playing charades.

There was picture after picture of them engaged in seemingly normal activities. Robin knew this is what Patrick meant about love being about everyday things, about when they just spent time being together. Every picture had been captured by someone else, but each had one thing in common. Mattie and Noah looked at each other like they were the only two people on earth.

People say a picture can say a thousand words, but Robin had always thought pictures can be misleading. To the untrained eye, a dysfunctional family or an abused child can seem completely happy in a picture. They plaster on a smile for the camera and that moment is now frozen in time, but not at all representational of what their life is like or how they're feeling. More observant, discerning, perceptive people can usually tell when a picture is telling lies.

But it didn't matter what kind of person you were when you looked at the pictures of Noah and Mattie. They captured the beautiful reality of their life together and the love they shared.

Patrick turned a few more pages until he reached one of Mattie sitting on a couch, her belly swollen.

Robin's mouth dropped open, as she ran her finger across Mattie's stomach. "She's pregnant with you."

Patrick nodded. "Very pregnant. I was born the same day. The story goes that my mother wanted to finish the roll of film so that she could start a new one for all of my beautiful newborn baby pictures. So she forced my father to go around the house just taking pictures. He was upstairs photographing a bed or something, when my mother's water broke all over the couch."

Robin leaned closer and squinted at the picture. She could make out just a faint hint of a water spot. "Wait, so you're father came down and took a picture of your mother on the couch after her water broke?"

Patrick shrugged. "My mother made him. There was only one picture left on the roll."

Robin laughed. "Your mother was an interesting woman."

"That she was."

Patrick turned the page. Robin gasped as she caught sight of Patrick Drake's first photo-op. He was all bundled up in a blue blanket, lying in a basinet in the hospital. His skin was bright pink, his eyes tightly closed. Even then Robin swore she could see his dimple.

She ran her fingers lovingly across the picture. "You were beautiful."

Patrick shook his head. "I didn't look my best. It was a tough day."

Robin giggled and pointed at his ears. "Your ears were huge!"

Patrick frowned. "Hey, you're not supposed to tease, remember?"

"You didn't mention anything about ears." She smiled and looked up at him, fingering his left ear lobe. "Plus, you did a wonderful job growing into them."

Patrick let out a snort. "Trust me, it took a while. I didn't stop looking like Dumbo until Junior High."

"They're kind of cute."

"My nickname all through elementary school was Dumbo Drake."

"Clever."

"Yeah, well, my classmates were cruel. They never claimed to be clever."

Robin's brow creased. "Wait a minute. Are you telling me you were teased as a kid? I thought you were Mr. Popular."

"In Junior High and High School, yeah. I grew into my looks and discovered I could throw a mean fastball. But elementary school was not a great time."

Robin shook her head. "You are just full of surprises. I never would have guessed that devastatingly handsome, confident, brilliant Patrick Drake was teased as a child."

He shrugged. "I managed to survive. My mom was great. She told me once that it was just my classmates way of diverting attention from whatever it was about themselves they didn't like. So, I promptly went upstairs and made a list of every bad feature of my tormentors. I showed it to her and said that the next day I would be able to fight back. I was so proud of myself. Imagine my shock when she tore my list up and threw it in the trash. She then sat me down and said being ugly on the inside is a whole lot worse than what happens on the outside. She said I should never sink down to anyone's level, not for any reason."

"You're mother was a pretty smart woman."

"I told you that you remind me of her," he replied quietly. "That's just one of the many reasons why."

Robin smiled, as Patrick turned the page. The next pages were filled with the new little Drake family. Mattie holding Patrick in her hospital bed. Noah cradling him to sleep in a rocking chair in the nursery. The proud parents smiling ear-to-ear as they sat on the couch, their newborn son lying between them.

Robin could feel the tears begin to sting her eyes as she realized just what Patrick had lost. The day Mattie died he hadn't just lost a mother, he'd lost his family. She was the glue that held everything together and when she died, they fell apart. Their beautiful little family crumbled to pieces.

Patrick watched as a tear slipped down Robin's cheek. "Hey, what's the matter?" he asked, touching her chin so that she would look up at him.

Robin shrugged. "It's just…I really understand it for the first time, I guess. What you lost that day."

Patrick swallowed around the lump in his throat. "Yeah. I look at these pictures and sometimes it doesn't even seem like my life. It's like it happened to someone else."

"That's your way of protecting yourself."

Patrick nodded. "I guess so."

Patrick flipped a few more pages. Soon it was his first birthday. He had a party hat on his head and chocolate cake all over his face.

Robin laughed. "That's a good look for you."

"My father said that instead of blowing my candles out I stuck my face in the cake."

Patrick turned a few more pages. Page after page was filled with events, both special and everyday, in the lives of Patrick and his parents. Patrick stopped when he reached a picture of them at Christmas. He was about five and sitting in front of the Christmas tree. In front of him was the racecar set.

Robin smiled. "That's when you got your racecar set."

Patrick ran his hand across the picture, as a wistful look appeared in his eyes. "Best present I ever got. I asked Santa for it and for years I thought he had given it to me. I never thanked my parents for it. It wasn't until I realized that Santa didn't exist that I knew my parents had given it to me. It was years later, but I thanked them for the best gift I had ever gotten. My father was relieved. He was finally able to make me feel guilty that he had to drag himself to five different stores in the snow looking for it."

"It must have been very special for you to keep it all this time."

Patrick nodded. "It reminds me of a time when everything was right in the world. I was innocent enough to still believe in Santa Claus and all families lasting forever."

"You know, Patrick," Robin began. "You really are lucky. I didn't even know who my real parents were until I was seven. I don't have all of these pictures and memories to look back on."

"You're right, I am lucky. It was wonderful while it lasted."

Patrick turned a few more pages. He tried to quickly turn one page, but Robin placed her hand down to stop him. A smile spread across her lips as she realized why he had tried to go past that page. He was about eight and in a school play. He was dressed as a fairy, complete with pink leotard, matching tights and glittery wings.

Robin had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing.

"It's not funny."

She removed her hand. "Oh, I beg to differ."

"There weren't enough parts for all of the kids in my class, so they made a bunch of us fairies."

"Must have done wonders for your self-esteem."

Patrick let out a little laugh and then turned the page. As time went on, Robin noticed that the amount and frequency of the pictures diminished.

"There seem to be less pictures and a bigger space between them."

Patrick bobbed his head. "Yeah, well, my mom was first diagnosed when I was twelve. We didn't take as many pictures after that. She went into remission for a while, then found out the tumor was back on the day I graduated from high school."

Patrick turned a few more pages and pointed at a picture. He was standing in front of a big oak tree in a black cap and gown, holding his diploma. His mother and father stood on either side of him, smiling proudly up at their son.

Patrick ran a hand across his mouth and cleared his throat. "She didn't tell me until the end of the summer. I was all packed and ready to go to college. She knew she couldn't wait any longer. She said she couldn't tell me on my graduation because she didn't want to ruin the day for me. Then she didn't want to ruin my last summer with my friends. And then she knew if she told me I would refuse to go away. She didn't want that. So, she waited until I was packed up and then she told me."

"That must have been terrible for you."

Patrick nodded. "I didn't believe it at first. I couldn't believe it could be happening again and at that point in my life. I mean, I was happy. I was starting a new phase of my life, going out on my own. How could this happen and ruin all of that? I told her I wasn't going, but she wouldn't hear of it. She said that the only thing that would get her through this would be knowing that I was pursuing my dreams." He paused and swallowed. "So, I went. And she was dead before spring break."

Robin linked her fingers with Patrick's. "There was nothing you could have done."

Patrick's lower lip quivered and he nodded. "I know, I just…I missed all of that time with her. I could have gone to college after. I could have gone some place closer and commuted."

"That wasn't what she wanted for you, Patrick."

Patrick raised his eyes to the ceiling. "I always wondered if I had been there to help my father through everything she was going through, maybe he would have been able to deal with her death better. He was already so drained before she passed. He had nothing left in him to get him through it."

Robin shook her head. "Your father didn't know how to live in a world without your mother, Patrick. Nothing would have changed that."

Patrick lowered his head and met her eyes. "I understand that now," he said quietly. "Standing outside that building, I had no choice but to imagine my life without you in it. And I couldn't do it. I couldn't see a future without you. I think I understood my father for the first time in those moments."

"Sometimes we have to spend some time in someone else's shoes before we can truly understand them."

Patrick closed the album and then let out a sigh. "Well, that was quite a trip down memory lane."

"Thank you for sharing it with me," Robin said softly.

Patrick placed a kiss on the top of her head. "Thank you for sticking around so I had the chance to share it with you."

"Hey, I'm still here because of you. You can't ever forget that," she said with a tiny smile.

"My heroic act was purely selfish. I wasn't about to let you go without a fight." He paused a long moment and then asked, "So did I distract you? Did I rise to the challenge?"

Robin nodded. "You always do. I never doubted you for a second."

Patrick kissed her forehead, then reached down to the bag. He pulled out a camera.

"I almost forgot," he said.

"Forgot what?" Robin asked.

"That it's time for us to start capturing some of our own memories. Patrick reached into the bag again and pulled out a scrapbook. "This is going to be our scrapbook. We can put pictures and mementos in it. You're looking for something to keep you busy, so I thought this was a start."

Robin smiled. "I think that's a great idea."

Patrick met her gaze, his voice softening. "I think this is the perfect time to start this. We have a second chance. You survived the hostage crisis and I'm negative. Now we can start thinking about the amazing future I know we're going to have."

Robin nodded, her smile widening. "I like the sound of that."

She then lifted her head and met his lips.

---

Patrick walked out of the elevator and into the nurses' station. He spotted his father and walked over to him.

Noah looked up from his paperwork. "Hey, how's Robin?"

Patrick shrugged. "She was going a little stir crazy, but I managed to distract her."

Noah arched an eyebrow. "Do I want to know?"

Patrick grinned and shook his head. "It was nothing like that, though not for lack of trying." He paused, the grin sliding off his lips. "I showed her our family photo album."

Noah's eyes widened. "Really?"

Patrick nodded. "Yeah, I hadn't looked at it in years. I wanted to share it with her."

"It must have been hard," Noah said quietly, as he moved his eyes to the ground.

Patrick shrugged his shoulders. "It was, but Robin finds a way to make everything easier. I never thought I'd be able to share those pictures, those memories, with anyone else. I never thought I'd want to. But I find myself wanting to tell her things I've never told another soul. I find myself wanting to share things with her that I haven't even thought about in more than a decade."

A bittersweet smile crossed Noah's lips. "That's because she's your rock." Patrick's brow furrowed slightly, as Noah went on. "She helps you through the hard times and makes you open parts of yourself you thought were closed forever. She's your rock. Your foundation. Your cornerstone. She helps things make sense. That's what your mother did for me."

Patrick stared at his father for a long moment, watching as Noah's eyes became glassy.

"Thank you," Patrick said softly.

Noah's forehead became creased. "For what?"

"For showing me what real, true love is. For showing me what it looked like every moment that you spent with Mom. Whether you were cooking breakfast together in the morning or watching television on the couch at night or reading the newspaper together on a Sunday, I could see it. I saw it in the way you looked at each other. I saw it in the way you touched. And I realize now that's what love is. The mundane, everyday things. The ones we often take for granted. Sharing those moments together is what love it all about. I saw what you and mom had and I knew what to look for, Dad. I knew what to aspire to. I also knew what it could cost me and that scared me for a long time. But now I know that no matter what happens in the future, I've had something that most people never get to experience in their lives. I've had real, true love and the only reason I know it's that is because of you."

Noah swallowed hard and placed a hand on his son's shoulder. He then offered him a crooked smile. "Well, looks like I am good for something after all."

Patrick simply laughed and shook his head.

---

That night, Patrick walked into Mac's carrying bags of Chinese take-out. He found Robin lying on the couch, covered in various items, the scrapbook on her lap.

Patrick smiled as he sat down on the coffee table opposite her.

"I see you wasted no time."

Robin smiled. "It turns out I already had a lot to put in here."

Patrick reached out to the scrapbook, "Oh yeah? Like what?"

Robin slapped his hand away. "It's not done!"

"It's a scrapbook. It's not supposed to be done. You're supposed to keep adding to it."

"I meant I am not done adding all of the stuff that I already have."

Patrick's arm shot out and he pulled the scrapbook off her lap. "Oh, just let me see it."

He opened the cover, his eyes widening at the first item. He pointed at the Fudge Mocha Brownie ice cream bar wrapper.

"You kept it?" he said, raising his eyes to meet hers.

Robin nodded. "It was the first time I saw a glimpse of the man I was meant to fall in love with. Something inside told me to keep it."

Patrick turned the page. "This was a flower on the table during our first real date. Right after our first kiss. I remember thinking it wasn't nearly as beautiful as you are. I can't believe you thought to take it. I was sure Carly was the only thing on your mind that night."

Robin shook her head and smiled. "You're always on my mind. Don't you know that by now?"

He kept turning pages. Each page contained a piece of a memory, some special moment they had shared together. A stick from the corndogs they had shared when he showed her his racecar set for the first time. The rose Patrick had given her when he had coaxed her away from lunch with Nikolas and they had almost made love. A page from the guidebook Robin used during their trip to the Markaam islands. A match that she had used to light the candles in the cabin they had first made love in.

Patrick looked up at her in amazement. "I can't believe you kept all of these things."

Robin smiled at him. "I could feel it happening. I was falling in love with you a little more everyday until I was a goner. And every time we shared something I knew I needed to save a piece of it. I knew how important it would be someday."

Patrick turned a few more pages. He saw the flattened carton from her leftovers from their MetroCourt lunch that his father had set up. They had really talked that day and soon had ended up back in his room, their lunches forgotten. Next, there was a leaf from the docks where she had comforted him after his exposure to HIV. There was a napkin from their unforgettable blackout night. It was a napkin from Kelly's where they had eaten chocolate cake and danced. Then there were the illicit pages from 'Jaws', the ones his mother had torn out when he was sick, a story he had shared with Robin while she was taking care of him.

He grinned. "Where did you get the pages?"

She pressed her finger to her lips and nodded at a book case behind the couch. "Shh, don't tell my Uncle Mac."

Patrick laughed and turned the page. He found a chip from their night on the Haunted Star, the night that he first blurted out he loved her. Pressed between the pages were petals from the flowers he had given her as he professed his love for the second time in Mercer Square, along with a CD with the song he had played for her. There was another napkin pressed between the next page. This one was from the breakfast he had made for her after they had declared their love and spent the night together. There was also a wrapper from the bottle of champagne they had shared on New Year's Eve in his new apartment. And then there was the key that he had given her to his apartment. What he still wanted to be their apartment.

He pointed at the key. "How long do you plan on keeping that in here?"

"Forever," she said.

His face fell. "So you don't plan on ever moving back in with me?"

She smiled and shook her head. "Oh, I'm going to move back in with you when the time's right, but you're just going to have to make me another key. That stays."

Patrick smiled and then turned to the last page that she had done. His brow wrinkled as he looked at the few crumbs on the page.

"What are these?"

Robin smiled. "Those are cookie crumbs from that wonderful surprise you gave me in the park the other day."

He offered her a lopsided smile. "You kept cookie crumbs?"

She chuckled. "I wrapped one of the cookies in a napkin so I could eat it later and then stuck it in my coat pocket. I found some crumbs in my pocket today." She smiled gently. "It's a symbol of a perfect day, a perfect moment. But you were right. Love is about the everyday things. I was scared that now that these crises were over that we would just be some boring, normal couple with habits that annoy each other. But we'll never be a normal couple because normal couples don't have we have. What we have is rare and special. We'll never be boring because we know every moment spent together is precious. And those habits that we have that annoy each other?"

"You mean the gargling I do while you're trying to fall asleep?" he said with a grin.

Robin smiled and nodded. "Those habits will make us love each other even more because they're a part of who I am and a part of who you are."

Patrick closed the scrapbook and moved to sit on the edge of the couch. He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her lips.

Then he pulled back and smiled, as he nodded at the scrapbook. "I think you're off to a great start."

Robin nodded and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I think we're off to a great a start."

**--------------------------------------------THE END---------------------------------------------------**

Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed it and please let me know what you thought.-Steph


End file.
